Category: condo collapse

Lawyers Awarded Over $70 Million Fees in Deadly Florida Condo Collapse

Lawyers who secured a $1.1 billion settlement in the deadly collapse last year of a beachfront Florida condominium building were awarded more than $70 million in fees Monday by a judge. The total was less than the approximately $100 million attorneys with the 17 law firms had requested, but there were no guarantees initially they…


A Year On, Surfside Remembers 98 Victims of Condo Collapse

SURFSIDE, Fla.—A year ago in the middle of the night, a 12-story oceanfront condo building in Surfside, Florida, came down with a thunderous roar, leaving a giant pile of rubble and claiming 98 lives—one of the deadliest structure collapses in U.S. history. The names of each victim were read aloud during a ceremony Friday to…


Sea Rise Under Scrutiny in Condo Collapse: Corrosion Likely, but No Sign of Sinkhole

By Alex Harris From Miami Herald SURFSIDE, Fla.—Scraped clean of tons of rubble late last month, the bare garage floor of Champlain Towers South appears to rule out at least one early suspect in its catastrophic collapse. There were no telltale signs of a sinkhole. The garage floor, the building’s lowest level, remains in one…


Lively Leader of Cuban American Community Among Florida Victims

Sixty years before Juan Mora’s Florida condo building came crashing down, killing him and at least 89 others, he was among hundreds of Cuban exiles who signed up for a covert, CIA-funded operation to overthrow Fidel Castro’s Soviet-backed dictatorship. Mora’s dream of restoring democracy in his homeland took him from military training at a Guatemalan…


Vaccinated Leader at Florida Condo Site Tests Positive for COVID-19

MIAMI—A vaccinated Miami-Dade county commissioner who helped other local officials in Surfside following the collapse of a condominium building announced that he and his chief of staff tested positive for COVID-19. The news release late Sunday from Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz said he and his chief of staff Isidoro Lopez, who also…


Death Toll From Florida Condo Collapse Death Toll Rises to 94

The death toll from the partial collapse of a condominium near Miami rose by four to 94 on Monday, with 22 people still unaccounted for as workers continued to sift through the rubble of the building, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. Due to the passage of time, officials are increasingly relying on the…


Identifying Remains Arduous as Florida Condo Collapse Death Toll Rises to 94

Confirmed deaths in the partial collapse of a condominium near Miami rose by four to 94 on Monday as identifying remains became progressively difficult with the recovery effort in its 19th day, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. Due to the passage of time, recovery workers are leaning more heavily on the medical examiner’s…


Rescue K9 Locates Man Trapped Under Rubble After Building Collapse in Washington DC, Leads Rescuers to Him

As firefighters responded to a five-story condominium collapse in Washington D.C. on July 1, a man who was trapped under the rubble owes a debt of gratitude to man’s best friend. Kimber, the 8-year-old search and rescue K-9 who assisted at the scene (on Kennedy Street in northwest D.C.), was able to pinpoint the man,…


Confirmed Death Toll in Miami Condo Collapse Reaches 86, Mayor Says

WASHINGTON—The number of people confirmed to have been killed in the collapse of a Miami-area condominium tower last month reached 86, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Saturday. No survivors have been pulled alive from the ruins since the first few hours after the tower partially caved in on itself early on June…


Confirmed Death Toll in Florida Condo Collapse Rises to 86

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—On Saturday, authorities raised the confirmed death toll from the collapse of a Miami-area condominium tower to 86, with 43 people still missing. At the Seaview Hotel, a vast and once impersonal ballroom has become a refuge—a shared space of hope and sorrow where grieving families comfort each other during the agonizing wait…